Hey everyone. Do you think a videocard with 256MB RAM would significantly improve the fps in a game like SWG? I know that it doesnt help so much in most fps games but SWG is much larger with a crazy amount of textures to laod with all the characters. Thoughts from someone who knows?

256MB would not make any difference. It is proven that the extra ram makes a 2% percent max increase in performance in today's game. Today's games simply do not need the extra ram. By the time games do, the cards that have 256MB would have memory and core clocks that are really slow. So, a 256MB card would be a HUGE waste of money. You can get the same performance for a 100 less.

yeah I read the reviews too and I know it doesnt help much at all in most games but this game is MUCH bigger than most games. Games like this were not mentioned in any of those reviews. If I extend my view distance to maximum at 1280x1024(have LCD and thats its native resolution) my fps drop to about 6. I have 3.0c P4 with 1024 DDR 400 dual channel RAM and a 9700 pro.

The reason I asked about the card was because in August I'm giving the 9700pro to my younger brother who wants to play when he gets back to college. He has a dell with a good cpu and amount of RAM but some crap video card.

I want to replace my card with something that will improve a game like star wars galaxies and run HL2 and doom III well too.

Everyone here sure that the difference would be minimal in such a huge game or are you just basing your comments on the same reviews I have already read? Thanks again!

Banes: I'm pretty sure uping your ram makes the game load faster and run smoother
but the fps should not be affected (or if they were not by very much at all)

I highly doubt there would be an improvment considering the framerate cap, but if you want to buy a 500 256MB dollar card and compare it with the 128MB version to see if there is a difference... be my guest.

The 9800 Radeon Pro 256 wouldn't give a significant performance increase over the 128 9800 pro. The GeForce 5900 Ultra is quite a bit better than the 9800 Pro 256 though. Not sure if the price is worth it. Check the PC Hardware board for alot of debate and benchmarks.